Never Again! Ten Years of Hitler – A Symposium.
Edited by Stephen S. Wise, published by Jewish Opinion Publishing Corporation. New York, February 1943. First edition.
A highly significant publication issued in the midst of World War II in the United States, marking the tenth anniversary of Hitlerism – or, as described in the volume, the “tenth anniversary of Germany’s decline into degradation, persecution, barbarity, and the inhumanity of Nazism.” Its aim was to raise alarm, generate awareness, and mobilize public opinion against the Third Reich and Nazism, with particular emphasis on the plight of European Jewry. A collection of essays (“symposium”) by prominent public figures, rabbis, intellectuals, and Jewish and American activists, under the editorship of Rabbi Stephen S. Wise. Contributors include: New York City Mayor Fiorello H. LaGuardia, New York Governor Herbert H. Lehman, U.S. Vice President Henry A. Wallace, U.S. Secretary of State Cordell Hull, Jewish Democratic Congressman Samuel Dickstein, President of the American Jewish Congress Rabbi Israel Goldstein, Jewish social activist and president of the National Council of Jewish Women Rebekah Kohut, among others.
The symposium was held in the spirit of hope for victory over the greatest evil humanity had ever known, and to outline a possible path toward the downfall of Hitler’s regime. Taking place in 1943 – at a time when reports of the genocide being carried out in Europe against the Jewish people had already become increasingly clear – the speakers addressed the starvation, torture, and mass murder perpetrated by the Nazis on a scale unprecedented in human history. “A careful study of world history reveals no reign of terror and inhumanity more bestial than that now practiced by Hitler and his associates. The Nazis have sunk to the lowest depths in the annals of human conduct. Sadism and Nazism are synonymous. These mad dogs of Europe find genuine pleasure in inflicting pain and in watching their victims suffer. The relentless slaughter of Jews in Poland is a terrible nightmare. Innocent men, women, and children are left to slowly die of starvation, or are suddenly dragged from their plague-stricken ghettos and murdered. They have no choice but death. Death is their deliverance. Death is their only hope of escape from pain, prolonged agony, and unspeakable disease.” – from the remarks of New York City Mayor Fiorello H. LaGuardia
The speakers in this volume call for a united struggle for the freedom of the Jewish people. They urge that the leaders of the Nazi regime be brought to justice and held accountable for their crimes without mercy, and they call for an uncompromising war to the total destruction of the Nazi enemy. This work marks the first known use of the phrase “Never Again” in the Jewish context of the Holocaust. As written in the opening statement: “‘Never Again!’ is more than a book of protest and condemnation. The distinguished men and women who wrote it have also voiced a demand for positive and effective action on the part of the United Nations—to save Hitler’s victims and to guard the future from all racial and religious hatred…”.
The editor, Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, was one of the leading Zionist figures in the United States at the time, a co-founder of the American Jewish Congress and the Zionist Organization of America. He was among the first in the U.S. to openly sound the alarm about the ongoing extermination of European Jewry, and worked tirelessly to pressure the Roosevelt administration to take action.
104 pp. Hardcover with the original dust jacket. Complete and intact.
